


just a little crush

by inesaa



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (sorry this title is so lame), Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Falling In Love, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, but im an impatient bitch so I cant promise anything, eventual, ideally it would be a, it's just a twist on pre-voltron where shiro hasn't gone missing I guess, kind of, kinda they're not 'enemies' but ya know, more like i think im funny but im not and im sorry, slowburn, smoking cigarettes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-06-28 10:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15705675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inesaa/pseuds/inesaa
Summary: A friend of Keith reveals she has a crush on one of their classmates. Keith really can't see why.Or does he?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I was not very confident with my writing since it's my first time working on a fic or anything, ever, and I was scared the characters were a little OOC but THEN, s7 came out. And now i'm like, fuck it, it can't be any worse than what the actual show did.  
> At least there won't be any dead gays here and klance will actually be canon king, so enjoy!

Nora was late.

Again.

And Keith did not really mind waiting for her because it wasn't as if he had anywhere else to go anyway. But, it had already been around fifteen minutes and well... Keith had not exactly volunteered to help her out of the goodness of his heart. Shiro just thought that a little tutoring would help the Garrison forget about his discipline problem or so he said. Which was probably just a ruse to push Keith into making friends his own age. And you couldn't say he was known as the most patient guy either.

So yeah, waiting to do something you just want to be done with wasn't necessarily Keith's favorite way to pass the time. He could be training. He could be washing the motorcycle Shiro agreed to lend him. He could be watching conspiracy theory videos on YouTube. He could be—

“Hey!” said Nora storming into the room. “Thanks for waiting up for me, there was a long line at Starbucks. You know how it is.”

He did not actually 'know how it was'. He always went to the closest Starbucks to Garrison (which was still pretty far away if he did say so himself, after all, this school was literally in the middle of nowhere) quite early in the morning when there still weren't many costumers. But he had overheard people say how crowded it could get at rush hour so he just nodded at her to let her know it was fine.

Nora smiled at him and slammed what looked like a cup of peach ice tea on the table before sitting down on the chair opposite Keith, spattering the pages of the notebook he had taken out with the condensation on her plastic cup. Keith stared at the liquid spreading on the paper for a second before quickly wiping it off with the sleeve of his old jacket, smudging a few black letters on the page. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Keith looked up at Nora, finding her already looking back at him as if she expected him to say something. He cleared his throat in discomfort.

“So, uh... did you want to review anything in particular?” Keith finally asked.

“I gotta admit,” he added after a few seconds. “I'm a little surprised you asked Mr. Farneti to see me as soon as possible?” Keith hated when his voice did that. 'That' being the way his voice went up at the end of sentences sometimes, the intonation making them sound like a question when it clearly wasn't. He could not even trust his own vocal chords, can you believe? “I mean, last time you seemed to do pretty well in every subject, so I thought that, you know, you did not need my help anymore and—”

Keith actually hadn't seen Nora many times. Mr. Farneti, their Aviation History teacher, and some of his colleagues thought that her bad grades originated less from a poor understanding than from a lack of organization and good working methodology. This is were Shiro intervenes: he _oh, so kindly_ , told them he knew the perfect student to help her, (yeah... Keith really could not thank him enough...).

The bottom line is, Keith basically just had to show Nora how to improve her time management along with giving her a few learning tips and... that was pretty much it. Making a lot of progress unsurprisingly did not require a lot of sessions which Keith was, admittedly, not too unhappy about. So, yeah today's call was a little unexpected. But at least, in those very few sessions, Nora had quickly understood that talking was not exactly Keith's forte and chimed in to put this shitshow to an end.

“Yeah, uh, I've been meaning to thank you for your advice, I've been doing like, _really_ good at school recently, I think I may be able to get a crazy good SAT score and my parent are _so_ excited for me since it means I might be able to get into my dream school now and— yeah, thanks.” she rattled on.

Keith did not know Nora very well and he knew he was not the best at reading people, but something was off about her, it sounded like this was not what she had intended to say, or at least that it was not all of it. Not to mention the fact that she had already thanked him a few times in the few classes they shared. All in all, it did not take a genius to understand that this was not the real reason she had asked to see him.

Nora must have sensed his skepticism because she sunk a little bit more into her chair and sighed in defeat. “Okay, so, I might need your help for one more _tiny_ little thing,” she admitted.

“Oh, sure,” Keith said, already flipping through the pages of the notebook he had in front of him to find something they could work with as well as, possibly, finding something to occupy his hands while he finished his sentence. “I've actually brought the notes I took in the last few classes we share so, if there is anything you wanted us to review—”

“It's, um— it's not school related,” she quickly informed him.

Keith suddenly set his search for his notes aside in order to fully look up at his interlocutor. He needed to make sure he had heard her correctly because this did not make any sense to him. Why would Nora ever need his help with something if it did not have anything to do with school? It was not like they were friends or anything. She could literally ask anyone else. So why ask him?

But, according to the nervous look on her face, he had understood her perfectly.

“I don't— I mean, I don't know if I'll be able to help you but... ask away I guess,” he said hesitantly.

He felt like he kind of sounded like a jerk. But he had no idea how to react, he really wasn't expecting this. And he was being honest after all, he really wasn't sure he would be of any help. Why did social interactions have to be so confusing? Couldn't Nora have just asked him whatever favor she was about to ask right away instead of passing this off as their usual tutoring session? He looked like an idiot with his little red pencil-case and all his notes now. He probably had the most puzzled look on his face and he hated it. He really hoped he at least didn't look too much like a lost puppy, but the little smile on Nora's face told him otherwise. First he couldn't control his own vocal chords and now his own face betrayed him too? And all that in the span of a few minutes too? Not cool.

“It's not something bad, I promise. I just... I noticed you knew Lance? And this is a little embarrassing, but I may or may not have a little crush on the guy... The thing is, we're friends so I can't just ask him out because then if he says no it's gonna be super awkward and...”

Years and years of (not so) intense observation of the human social behavior lead Keith to a conclusion absolutely _no one_ could have ever reached: Nora started ranting whenever she got nervous. The problem was that Keith wasn't really used to that, which meant he had a pretty hard time following her.

“Wait wait wait. Who's Lance?” Keith asked.

“Uh, Lance? Lance McClain? I'm pretty sure he's been in most of your classes for years...? Nora answered hesitantly.

Okay. So, now Keith _really_ felt like a jerk. He had no idea who that guy was and according to the look on Nora's face it shouldn't be the case. Which he guessed was well deserved, he did not even know his classmates' names for Christ's sake! He usually could not care less what other students thought about him but he felt the absurd need to justify himself or at least find a way to not appear like a real A-class jerk. The thing is, Keith could be pretty oblivious. He did not pay much attention to other people; he just went to Garrison, took notes, trained and then returned to his shack. He did not talk to anyone unless it was totally necessary and it had never been an issue, until now.

Noting that the mere mention of their classmate's name was surprisingly not ringing any bells, Nora elaborated:

“You know, he's got.. like this running joke that you guys are rivals and all... I really thought you were friends.”

Keith felt his eyebrows slowly raising towards his hairline in realization. _Oh_ , he knew the guy, alright. For some reason, he kept challenging Keith in class and making sure he knew when he got a good score on a test or in flight simulations. It was really starting to interfere with Keith's otherwise amazingly implemented plan not to talk to anyone here. Actually... now that he thought about it, Keith was almost positive he had heard Lance repeat what he had said in a mocking tone just this morning. Keith snorted. Yep, he did not have many of those, but he was pretty sure Lance and him were far from being friends. He told Nora so.

“Really? Wow, sorry, I honestly thought you were. I mean I obviously wouldn't have asked you this otherwise... But, I do think Lance is just teasing though, he's like the sweetest guy. I'm sure you'd think so to if you talked to him. Actually...” Nora paused, looking right at Keith with a cocked eyebrow and a pleased smile. Keith felt like he was not going to like the end of this sentence but did not interrupt her. “You _should_ talk to him. You'd get to know each other and all... And then, you could, I don't know... ask him about me? Just a little thought, here.”

Yep. There it was. He did not like this idea at all. There was no way he was going to—

“Uh yeah, sure,” Keith found himself answering.

“What?” Nora exclaimed in surprise. “Seriously? That'd be awesome, dude, thank you! I don't want to ask too much out of you... but maybe don't tell him right away? He'll get suspicious and I might as well have had asked him so myself.”

' _What_ ' indeed. Why the hell had Keith said that exactly? So now, his mouth decided to go against him as well, huh? That 'trust nobody, not even yourself' meme had never been more relevant. Keith could easily picture his face badly photoshopped on this guy pointing a gun at his own back. But he could curse himself all he wanted, there was no backing down now. Nora seemed so excited... he did not want to know how she'd react if he went back on his word. He felt like he had made enough jerk moves today. And after all, how bad could talking to his classmate really be?

“Yeah, okay. I'll talk to Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the (quite short) Prologue! If you guys did, I should update the fic pretty soon, most of the next chapter has already been written.  
> English is not my native language, so if you noticed any mistakes or if at one point something I wrote made no sense, please let me know. I hope it was not too noticeable and still pleasing to read!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the first (second?) chapter! i was not expecting all those good responses on the prologue (or any responses really), so thank you so much, guys! i hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well, it is a little longer (i dont know what the avarage chapter length will be tbh, probably around the same as this one but what is consistency???)

It turned out that talking to one's classmate was pretty damn hard.

Maybe it was just Keith, but a few days had passed and he had not found _one single_ opportunity to talk to Lance. Granted, it did not help that Keith always left as soon as a lesson was over while most conversations occurred when students lingered at the end of a class. And he really had been looking for a way to initiate a conversation with him ever since his last one with Nora. He was not very proud to admit he had almost ended up googling how to make new friends the previous night, but had decided against it. He was not _that_ desperate (yet).

Keith took his phone out of the front pocket of his favorite distressed black jeans.

 _07:28pm_.

Shiro would not arrive to pick him up before at least a full quarter of an hour. He had needed his motorcycle back a few days ago since his boyfriend, Adam had taken it for a short trip to another branch of Garrison. Which left Keith with no way to get back to the shack on his own. Hence, the waiting for his friend to come give him a ride back home. He paused to think about it for a few seconds before finally shrugging and taking out an old dented pack of cigarettes.

He lit up a slightly crooked cigarette before looking up at what looked like the full moon appearing in the darkening sky. He almost felt blessed to be able to see her before nightfall; Keith had always felt an inexplicable pull to the skies. He breathed out a shaky breath in the chill air, forming a small cloud akin to the morning mist in the process, a copy of the smoke he would have exhaled had he already brought the cigarette up to his mouth. This was his favorite moment of the day: when campus was getting quieter and the sky donned pretty colors.

“Seriously? I swear to god, you are _everywhere_. Not a day goes by without me seeing that stupid mullet.”

Keith started, surprised to hear a voice when he believed he was alone. He hoped whoever had joined him hadn't noticed, he did not need people to know the 'fearless' Keith Kogane jumped at the slightest noise. He turned around to see who the voice belonged to and _oh_. He could difficultly make out the back-lit boy's face, but he was pretty sure this was the Lance guy Nora had told him about. Which... was quite convenient for Keith considering the difficulties he'd had unsuccessfully racking his brain in search for a good way to approach him.

Recalling what the boy had just said, Keith unconsciously combed a hand through the longest part of his dark hair, wondering what was wrong with it.

“Uh yeah... it's probably because we're in the same school,” Keith answered truthfully, brushing off the insult about his hair.

Judging by the look on Lance's face, more specifically his thin, raised eyebrows, this was not the right answer. He was off to a good start... Maybe he should have made that google search after all...

“Doesn't explain why you're in my spot,” Lance ended up answering provokingly.

 _His spot?_ Keith looked around. It was just a basic bench on campus. It _was_ one of the rare places where you could find a few trees as well as being far away from the main buildings. Keith guessed it was as isolated as you could get in this school which, he could admittedly see the appeal of. It was the reason he came here in the first place. But other than that, he did not see what was so special about this bench that you would want to call it 'your spot'.

“Hm...” hummed Keith, pretending to think about it for a second. “Well, I guess it's my spot now,” he finally said in a mock apologetic voice followed by a shrug and a pained smile.

Okay, this time he was aware he was not being the most friendly but for his defense, he couldn't help it, that guy was being seriously ridiculous. As if he was going to let someone tell him where he could and could not go... Talking to Lance was turning out to be even harder than he had expected. But at least this time, Keith could tell he had left his schoolmate rather perplexed, unable to think of an answer.

Until Lance's gaze fell on Keith's right hand.

He let out a dry chuckle. “Of fucking course you would smoke. Can you be even more of a cliché?”

And see, this time, as tempting as retaliating was, Keith decided to be the bigger man here. So he merely snorted before finally bringing the cigarette to his lips and taking a drag. Which took a lot of efforts okay? Keith had a bit of a temper, and Lance seemed to know exactly how to rile him up. _What had he ever done to this guy anyways?_

This made him seriously wonder what Nora could see in him when he was acting like such an asshole. Maybe it was the blue eyes that Keith could see now that his own eyes had had time to adjust to the back-lighting. She probably thought they were dreamy. Or his shoulders that were a little wider than most guys in their grade. Or his perfectly straight teeth and the slight splash of freckles on the bridge of his nose. Not that he was giving it any thoughts.

He looked away and once again retrieved his crumbled pack before tilting it in Lance's direction.

“You want one?” Keith offered. Lance hesitated for a second before shrugging and reaching for Keith's pack and his lighter.

“Thanks,” muttered Lance, lighting a cigarette, halfheartedly dropping the animosity.

Oh yeah, Keith was the best at making friends. Take that google. He did not need any help, he was doing _just fine_ on his own. Except he had no idea what to say now, but he should celebrate small victories, right? baby steps and all that.

“I actually don't smoke very often,” Keith ended up mumbling after an embarrassing long pause. He usually did not mind gasps when spending time with someone and actually preferred them to boring small talk most of the time. But at this moment, the gasp was gnawing at him and making him so uncomfortable he was spitting out whatever words came to his mind to fill it in.

Lance who had been focusing all his attention on a bird which had successfully pulled one of the rare worms out of the dry ground and was starting to devour its feast turned his head back towards Keith. “What?” He asked.

“I, uh,” Keith started again. “I don't smoke very often. Just sometimes, when I feel like it, you know? In one of the foster families I was in, the mother smoked a lot and I used to steal some of her cigarettes and old habits die hard I guess.”

Oh no.

Nora had infected him. He was starting to ramble when he got nervous which was a very unlike-him thing to do and he _hated_ it. Lance did not seem particularly thrown off though, after all, he was probably used to other people speaking full sentences to him, it was not anything too remarkable. But it was for Keith. And he could tell Lance was a little surprised as it must have been the first time he had heard him say more than a few words.

He felt a bit sick about unconsciously playing the orphan card. He had not meant to share anything personal but apparently, him having no control over his mouth these days was a thing he had to get used to now.

Keith flicked the filter of his cigarette and observed the ash the movement had made fly away. He lifted his head to glance at where Lance was standing uncharacteristically silent, his own cigarette brought to his mouth, its tip lighting up small parts of his face in warm colors. Why was he so quiet after Keith's embarrassing words vomit? He didn't know what was up, but he could tell it was not anything good.

“Sorry, I didn't really know what to say. I know your parents are, uh well, kind of a sensitive matter for you,” Lance explained, noticing Keith's confused face, while Keith could not for the life of him decipher the look on Lance's own face.

“And what exactly do you mean by that?” He asked, unintentionally letting some aggression slip back into his voice.

“I mean, the last time I heard anyone mention them they ended up in the nurse's office.”

Keith knew perfectly what Lance was referring to. While the other boy had, indeed ended up in the nurse's office, Keith had ended up in the principal's one with a few bruises of his own. He probably would have gotten expelled had it not been for Shiro vouching for him. He doubted Lance would know that part of the story, though. This had happened during his first year at Garrison and despite his irritation, Keith was surprised Lance remembered it when he had been unable to recall his name a few days ago.

“Griffin's an asshole,” he muttered, trying to play it off as if he could not care less what Lance thought of him. He usually did not, but he felt a little self-conscious in this moment, not that Lance needed to know that. Fake it 'til you make it, right?

 “Hey, I'm not saying he isn't cause, yeah, he kind of is,” replied Lance defensively. “Was hitting him really necessary though? 'Cause I don't think it was.”

Keith snorted. Ah, so Lance was one of those people who claimed to hate violence. Which like: fine. Keith was aware violence was not always the answer, but sometimes he felt like it kind of was? And it was not like he had hit Griffin last week— or last month for all that mattered— it had happened fucking years ago. He was able to control his anger a lot better now, thank you very much. And Griffin had not hesitated to hit him back, then anyway.

 Keith sighed. “Whatever,” he said, taking one last drag of his burned out cigarette. He did not feel like talking anymore and was almost relieved to see Shiro's car in the distance.

He let the cigarette fall to the ground before crushing it under the sole of his boot. He headed for the vehicle, impatient to get out of here while still feeling uncomfortably weird about leaving without saying goodbye.

 

*

 

“ _So_ ,” Shiro started, with what Keith could tell was a pleased smile. “Who was this friend of yours?”

Keith had barely had time to sit down on the passenger seat, and Shiro was already asking the wrong questions. And he was probably doing it on purpose, the fucker. Not that Keith did not realize that bringing Lance up was inevitable after Shiro had seen him talk to him. After all, Shiro _was_ always pestering him to get more friends. But Keith had been kind of hoping (in vain) he would not tease him for once.

He rolled his eyes while answering. “Just some asshole in my grade.” He turned his head back to the window in order to show how little interest he had in continuing this conversation.

Shiro clearly did not understand or simply did not care (probably the latter) because he pressed on: “And why were you talking to him if he's an asshole?”

Talking about that disaster of a conversation was the last thing Keith wanted to do at this moment. He just wanted to go back home and forget about it. But Shiro would not let him. It did not mean he could not still try to avoid the subject, though.

“Long story,” said Keith evasively, still facing the window. Not only did he not feel like talking about Lance, but he also felt kind of stupid for agreeing to help Nora now. He did not even know what he was going to tell her if she asked for an update. Weirdly, he felt like telling her 'sorry, but apparently I couldn't even manage to hold a conversation with that crush of yours, maybe you should consider asking a person with actual social skills to help next time' just would not cut it.

“Yeah, because we have _so many_ other things to talk about before getting to your shack,” replied Shiro, his voice dripping with sarcasm which Keith chose to ignore.

“Yup,” he said smugly. It was only a matter of who would give in first. And they both knew which one of them was the stubbornest. Yeah, this was a guaranteed win for Keith. “How's Adam?”

He knew Shiro could not ever pass up an opportunity to gush about his boyfriend and he had no scruple using all the tricks he had up his sleeve if it meant avoiding an awkward conversation.

He turned his head back to Shiro who's enamored smile indicated that the man was thinking about how disgustingly in love he was with Adam. Keith praised himself for having successfully (although admittedly not very subtly) shifted the subject to a safer direction while listening to his friend rattle on about his boyfriend. He was willing to hear Shiro once again talk his ears out about Adam if it meant he did not have to share his still too recent life failures.

Once they got in front of the shack, Shiro shut the engine off and turned his head back to Keith. He was wearing a smile Keith had never seen on his face before. It looked almost... _shy_ , which was a really strange look on Shiro.

“I'm thinking about proposing to him,” he finally revealed in the silence of the car.

“Oh wow,” Keith said.

He had no idea how to react. Of course, he was delighted for them. Hell, he was fucking _thrilled_. He knew how much Shiro and Adam loved each other and he was so happy for the man who had became like a brother to him. But no one had ever confided something this big to him and he did not know what the adequate reaction to this kind of confession was. So he decided to go for something he knew well; the truth.

“You should do it,” he said with an encouraging smile. “You better introduce us properly before proposing to him, though,” he added, pointing a finger at him in mock threat.

“Keith,” warned Shiro, although incapable of concealing the building laughter in his voice.

“What? I'm serious, you should have done this months— hell, _years_ ago! I'm kinda pissed you still haven't actually.”

“Come on, you guys saw each other thousands of time!”

“Yeah, but it was always at school. I've never actually seen him without his uniform! What if he has, like really bad taste in clothes? I can't give you my approval for you to marry a guy who can't dress himself, Shiro,” Keith said in a very serious tone.

Shiro snorted. They both knew very well how little Keith cared about clothing. “I— what can I say... you do make a very compelling argument.”

“So, it's a deal? We're going to hang out together before you propose?”

“It's a deal,” Shiro echoed, smiling, before extending a hand for Keith to shake.

It only took Keith a handful of seconds to come up with a new way to distract Shiro from their original subject. A handful of seconds too long. Shiro had had time to get a grip on himself and Keith only had one other way to avoid the conversation if he decided to bring it up again. And he definitely would. Keith unfastened his seatbelt.

“So, that new friend of yours—“ Yep. That was his cue to go.

“Annnd I'm out,” Keith said, getting out of the car as fast as possible.

 

*

 

“Hey, Keith!”

Keith turned around to come face to face with the person he had been avoiding for the past few days.

After what had went done with Lance, (aka his failed attempt at social interactions) he had not really felt like facing Nora and the pressing questions that would come with her just yet. They had not really talked since their last 'tutoring session' and he appreciated the fact that she had not mentioned the promise he had made her ever since then. But he knew it was coming and did not want to disappoint the only person he was talking to in his grade. Not if he could help it.

“Oh, hey Nora!” He tried to sound as cheerful as he could and smiled at her. She smiled back. He felt like a fraud.

“How have you been doing?” Nora asked.

“You mean, how has the Lance thing been doing?” He did not feel like beating around the bush. He just wanted to get this over with.

“No, I meant how have _you_ been doing,” she said sincerely. Then added: “Of course I was also wondering if you've talked to Lance yet, but that is not the only reason I'm talking to you.”

“I... did not really have time to talk to him yet?” There he was again, transforming statements into questions. “But I will. Soon. Today maybe?” He looked around but there was no sign of Lance yet.

“Oh, alright, there's no hurry. This will have to wait anyway, his best friend, Hunk told me Lance would not be there today,” she said, looking at a group of students waiting for their professor to arrive in the corridor, just like Nora and him. He supposed one of them was Lance's best friend; actually, he was pretty sure it was the big guy with the orange headband. He seemed nice. Too nice to be Lance's friend, if he did say so himself. He remembered hearing his name now that he was thinking about it. Would you look at that, he did know a few of his classmate's names after all!

He was glad Nora was making excuses for him because he could not have come up with one so fast on his own. But he knew he was only stalling. Sooner or later, he would either have to tell her he was unable to help her or find a way to befriend Lance. The first option did seem like the easiest.

He did not have time to make up his mind to tell her anyway. Their professor had just arrived and was already unlocking the classroom's door when he looked back at Nora. This will have to wait another time.

 

*

 

Keith had always sat in the back, close to a window if he could. It might make him look like a cliché, once again. He did not care, he liked it there, and it was enough reason to do it. If it meant being a cliché, so be it.

This was one of the oldest classroom in Garrison. The desks were full of engravings and little drawings made with permanent markers. Some that Keith had even made himself when he was bored, like the cool knife he had drawn on the corner of the same desk he was looking at a little over a year ago. It even had one of those old overhead projectors since their professor, Mrs. Sacher liked ancient equipment better. Keith was convinced that if there would have been a classroom with a chalkboard, she would have picked that one.

“Keith?” Mrs. Sacher said. Keith wondered how the hell she had traveled to him this fast. He swore he had just seen her in front of the class.

“Yeah?” He answered. He knew why she was here. At the beginning of class, she had asked them to form pairs for an upcoming project they would have to work on in between classes. Except he knew they were an odd number today, so his plan had been to wait until everyone was already paired up so he could go: 'oh no, there's no one left for me to work with...guess I'm going to have to do this project alone... that's too bad, really'. He worked alone better and did not want to have to depend on anyone else for this project. Really, it was better this way. His only fear had been Nora asking him to work with her, but she had already paired up with Ina, so everything was going according to plan.

“I notice you have not found a partner yet,” she said, making a point to look around at all the groups that had already been formed.

“Yeah, I would have, but everyone's already in a group. I really don't mind doing the presentation on my own, though.” He tried sounding as nonchalant as possible.

“The thing is, this was supposed to be a group work to get you acquainted with working as a team as most of you will in the future. But if—“

She was about to let him. Keith could tell. But, of course (as much as he liked her) Nora had to ruin all his efforts when he was _this close_ to succeed.

“I'm sorry, Miss, but I could not help overhearing that Keith had not found a partner yet,” she said with an innocent smile, sitting a few desks away. She was probably going to offer him to be a part of their group, and Mrs. Sacher would agree because a group of three was always better than working alone on what was supposed to be a group presentation.

“Indeed. I thought I had made sure there were enough of you so you would all be paired up, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Yeah, it's because one of the students is missing. Lance McClain. That's what I was about to tell you: Keith and him could work together.”

That made Keith instantly look up. He... was not expecting this. He certainly had not put this into consideration when coming up with his so-called infallible plan. Pairing up with Nora did not sound like such a bad idea after all.

Mrs. Sacher looked around the class. “Oh yes, it appears that he is. I guess that settles it then, Keith you'll be working with Lance.”

Nora gave him a thumbs-up, grinning. She probably thought she was helping by _generously_ giving him the perfect opportunity to talk to him. After all, she had no idea he already had attempted to and failed. He tried smiling back at her, hoping it did not look too pained.

He was so screwed.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Keith usually did not spend a lot of time on the Galaxy Garrison's campus. He actually tried to stay away from it as much as possible.

It was not that he did not like it there, because he did. Every time he looked at the gigantic main building, he was reminded of the fact that he had been given an opportunity when he had once thought it was hopeless for him, that he had no future. He had no words to express how thankful he was to be in this school, doing something he had surprisingly come to love, and what was more, something he was actually pretty damn good at. But after spending most of his life alone, being in such a big space with such an incredibly high foot traffic could get pretty overwhelming for Keith.

What often got to him was the noise. The Garrison was constantly teeming with different activities in every single inch of the building. They went from simple classes, to meetings, to flight tests. It felt good to get away from all of this and breathe a little from time to time. Which was not always an easy task. Especially those days: with no mean of transport at his disposal, Keith had to wait up for Shiro every day after school and could not get back home for lunch as he sometimes did with the motorcycle.

He sighed, pushing aside his bangs out of his eyes. He had taken refuge inside the computer room on the second floor. There usually weren't many people there; they liked the one on the first floor better as it was better equipped. Because of all the class projects coming up, more students had made their way up to the room in order to work on their presentations. The one on the first floor was probably full then. Thankfully, everyone here was keeping it quiet and Keith could breathe a little better.

He took a last deep breath before turning on the computer in front of him. Since he was here, he might as well get some work done.

A few minutes later, the door opened to let another group of students in. Nora and Ina. He was not surprised to see them here as Nora had told him she was planning on working on the project today. He was still a little mad at her for not only ruining his plan but also getting him paired up with Lance fucking McClain, of all people. He could not let her see that, though.

He nodded at them in greeting. They made their way towards him and before he even had time to register what was happening, sat down behind the computer next to him. So much for wanting to be alone.

Keith longingly looked at all the other empty seats in the room that were not, you know, _right next to him_ but ended up weakly smiling at the girls. They had already logged in their computers and probably thought sitting next to him was just the friendliest thing to do.

He could do this.

He cleared his throat in discomfort. “So... did you guys decide what your presentation was going to be on?”

The girls turned their head away for the screen and toward Keith. “Oh yeah, we've already worked on it a little,” said Nora.

“It's going to be portraits of the different impressive women in aviation,” added Ina, enthusiastically.

“Oh, okay, that's cool,” Keith said, because it was, and he honestly did not really know what else to say. He hoped they were not going to ask him the same thing. This presentation was all he had been able to think about for the last few days, but he had not been very focused on its topic just yet.

“It is, isn't it?” Nora answered with a proud chuckle. “Have you and Lance started working on it yet? You did get the message I sent you with his number in it, right?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah, I did,” said Keith, before remembering the other question and adding: “And no, we haven't started yet. We haven't had time to see each other, so... yeah.”

This was not a lie. _Technically._ When Nora had given Keith his number, he had halfheartedly texted Lance so that they could meet somewhere to get some work done, after all. But he _might_ have told him he could not see him when Lance offered they worked a little the next day when Keith had been the very definition of available. He had just needed some time to mentally prepare, okay? As a matter of fact, they had agreed to meet a little later today and Keith had not even complained too much about it to Shiro (he thought. don't ask Shiro).

This reminded him that they still had not secured an agreement on the location of their meeting.

 

**To: Lance McClain **

(15:06) hey. i dont know where you wanted us to meet but im

in the computer room on the second floor if you

wanna meet here.

 

He let his fingertips hover above the keyboard for a moment, unsure. He spent an embarrassing amount of time wondering if he should end his last sentence with a question mark instead of a full stop. No, he was not going to do the question mark thing in texts as well. Full stop it was. He pressed send and tried not to think about it too hard after slipping his phone back inside his jeans pocket.

He looked back up at his computer screen. His phone felt oddly heavy against his thigh, a haunting reminder that he had to interact with the one person he had the hardest time interacting with. And by text messages on top of that. As convenient as owning a phone could be, Keith hated texting. Which was good, because it was not like he had many people to send messages to in the first place. But when he did, he had a nasty habit of taking hours if not days to answer because of his obliviousness. What he hated the most, though, was how texting made him even more aware of his lack of social skills. It was like he was given all the time in the world to think of an answer and still couldn't come up with anything good enough.

From the corner of his eye, he could see how much Nora and Ina had already written. He opened a word document. Tried to type an idea, _any idea_ he could think of for the project. Deleted said ideas. Typed something again. Ended up also deleting this a minute later.

He stared at the blank page until his eyes started to prickle. He had felt his phone vibrate against his thigh maybe a few minutes ago but had been a little nervous to check it. The phone vibrated again, reminding him of the ignored text waiting for him on his phone screen. He rubbed at his eyes and retrieved it. As expected it was Lance. His answer only consisted of a thumbs-up emoji. _What the fuck did that even mean?_ Keith assumed it meant Lance would join him at some point and looked back to the screen. Maybe if he stared hard enough the ideas would start writing themselves.

“Hey, you're ready to go?” A voice over Keith's shoulder made him jump slightly.

He was so focused on the screen that he had not heard Lance McClain come in. Did this guy really have to take him by surprise every single time? That was a little embarrassing, he ought to be a little more alert in the future. He allowed himself to be a little pissed about it before what Lance had said finally registered to his brain but Lance had already turned his back to him to greet Nora.

If she hadn't told him she had a crush on him, Keith could have never told. He just didn't notice that kind of things. But now that he knew, it was almost obvious in the way she tilted her head and looked at him through her lashes. By the stupid smile plastered on her face and the constant giggles that flew out of her mouth at his every word. Hell, it was a wonder Lance had not already figured it out himself.

“Wait, what? I thought we were staying here?”

That's what they had agreed on, hadn't they? Or maybe the thumbs-up emoji did mean something else after all.

Lance took a look around the room. “And work on these computers? No thanks.”

“What's wrong with them?”

“Uh...they suck? I'm not going to use them when I finally managed to convince Pidge to lend me their computer.”

Keith was not able to answer anyway as Lance was already on his way to leave the room and had to turn off the computer in a hurry to catch up with him. He could not believe he was practically running after the most infuriating guy he had ever met.

 

*

 

“So, this is my dorm room,” Lance announced, unlocking one of the many doors in the long corridor.

Keith stepped inside, closely followed by Lance, glad he at least had not said something like 'this is where the magic happens'. He probably would have had a deadly cringe attack on the spot.

As the dorms were located right next to the main building which was miles away from everything, most students lived on campus. It had not taken them too long to get here, a couple of minutes at most, but the awkwardness of the situation had made it seem last an hour. Keith stared at the unmade beds, the walls filled with pictures, posters and drawing, the chairs almost completely hidden by the clothes that had been put down on them. It looked so _alive_ and it made something ache in Keith's chest.

“You have a roommate?” He asked, noting the presence of the second bed. Lance quickly made the one against the right wall, sat down on it and opened what Keith guessed was Pidge's laptop (he had no idea who that was).

“No, I live there all by myself, that's why I have two beds and pictures of a half Samoan, half African-American family all over the left side of my room,” Lance answered, too sarcastic to be of any use. “Of course I have a roommate, mullet boy.”

Wow. Okay. So here's how his poor attempt at small talk went. Which, fine, he hated small talk anyway, but that still kind of stung. He couldn't believe that was the same guy Nora was batting her eyelashes at just a few minutes ago. He tried to bury the feeling down and sat next to Lance on the bed while he was turning the laptop on.

After a few minutes, Lance groaned. “Ugh, I can't believe I have to work with _you_.”

“Yeah, well, the feeling is mutual,” Keith answered coldly.

 _But we still have to_ was left unsaid but Keith could tell they were both thinking it as Lance quickly opened a word text document as well as a presentation one. He had just opened a new google tab when he spoke again:

“I've been thinking about what the presentation should be about, or more specifically, _who_ it should be about and who other than Takashi Shirogane to—“

Lance enthusiastic talking had been stopped short by Keith's loud snorting and his face fell. _Oh_ . Keith thought he had been joking... he did not actually think he would do a presentation on _Shiro_?

“No way, dude,” Keith stated, because he did not want to see the face Shiro would make if he heard about Keith making a presentation on him. No thanks. He already pestered him enough about that time Keith had chosen to write about him for an essay in which they had to talk about their role model during his first year at Garrison. He did not want to give him any more teasing material.

“...What? Why not? He is one of the best pilots of our era as well as being the first gay Asian man to hold this position, and at such a young age too,” Lance said defensively. “Do you have something against him?”

“Well, not right now, no. But if we do a presentation on him, he'll never let me live that down and then I _will_ have something against him,”

Lance's tensed features softened at this and the anger in his voice had vanished when he spoke again: “Oh, you and Shiro are close or something?”

“Yeah, you could say that. He's like a brother to me. Funny how you were quick to remember me fighting with Griffin but not him saying the only reason I got here was because of Shiro,” Keith said with a sour smile.

Lance winced slightly. “So, do you have another idea for the project then?”

According to the _very subtle_ way Lance had changed the subject, he did not want to talk about this. As Keith himself was also quite fond of that trick, he let it slide. He did not feel like arguing with Lance anyway. And maybe the fact that Lance seemed to look up to someone like Shiro made Keith see him in a different light. It meant he was not just this asshole kid in his grade, there was some potential under all that facade.

However, it meant he had to come up with an idea, and fast.

“What about the dangers of space exploration and the potential extraterrestrial encounters?” Offered Keith, hoping you could not tell he had just came up with this on spot.

“So like something about aliens but with fancier words? Didn't know you were into conspiracy theories,” Lance said with a smile. Granted, it was a small one. But it was the first time Keith had ever seen him genuinely smile because of him. It was a start.

“I mean, kinda.. but aliens are different, like, given the vastness of the universe there _has_ to be something out there. I can feel it,” Keith explained, trying to make it short.

He could talk about aliens for hours, just like he used to with his dad when he was little. His father had not doubts they existed and almost talked about them with some sort of nostalgia. Maybe because he knew he most likely would never actually meet one.

“You don't need to convince me, I agree, man! I'm just not as, uh, into it I guess,”

Ah yeah, maybe he'd come off a little intense. He liked the other theories too, but more as a joke than anything, it was fun to think about, but at the end of the day, not very likely to be true. Extraterrestrial life, though... Yeah, you could really blame his dad for that one, he was _so_ convinced they were out there that Keith could not doubt it. It was one of his only memory of him after all and there was no way he was letting it go. The idea that they really were out there soothed him somehow because his father would have been right, and because he would not be so alone after all.

 

*

 

They had spent the whole evening researching after this. And after a rough start, working with Lance had surprisingly not gone as terribly as predicted. Granted, Lance was still a little annoying at times and they kept bickering over every single thing but it was nothing Keith couldn't deal with if it meant they weren't downright antagonizing each other for no reason whatsoever anymore.

“That's what I've done with the research from last time, plus what else I've found and what you sent me,” Keith explained, inserting his flash drive in the laptop Lance had apparently convinced whoever Pidge was to lend him once again.

They had agreed to do some research on their own before seeing each other again and exchanged their e-mail addresses to send each other what had resulted from it. Which had admittedly been quite convenient, as it had given Keith something to keep him busy with while waiting for Shiro to finish work after school.

There was a long silence after Keith double-clicked on the presentation document. “That's seriously what you want us to present?” said Lance, his lips pressed against each other to keep himself from laughing.

“Uh...Yeah? What's wrong with it?” Keith asked, genuinely curious about why him thinking using this presentation for the project was so funny to Lance. All he had done was writing down the title, a summary and a few notes so that their audience could easily follow along with what they'd be saying. Nothing worth laughing about in Keith's opinion.

“ _What's wrong with it_? Oh, Kogane, I feel kind of bad for you,” Lance answered dramatically. Then, he added, inserting his own flash drive in the laptop (it was shark-shaped. _cute_.): “Watch this, emo boy. You're about to get your mind blown.”

Lance opened the file and... okay. That did look _way_ better than his. He had somehow managed to put a breathtaking picture of space in which the stars seemed to be sparkling as a background in the middle and a way prettier font than the default font Keith had used as well as little animated spaceships. Keith had no idea how he had done that and was kind of impressed to be honest. There was no way he was going to let Lance know that, though. But the look on his face probably betrayed his true feelings, considering the fact that a small smirk was starting to appear on Lance's face.

And then Lance switched to the following slide. Keith let out a little chuckle.

“The slides look cool but there's _no way_ we're leaving that,” Keith said, voice full of amusement.

“Uh, coming from you that's—”

“Lance,” Keith warned. “Slide transition effects are ridiculous and you know it.”

He could hear Lance mutter under his breath but thank god, he still removed those awful slide transitions. Lance hesitated on one where the slide was pierced by a star that got bigger and bigger until you only saw the next slide, but halfheartedly deleted it when he saw Keith pointed look. They most certainly would not keep that one, it was one of the worst.

After this, they mostly worked without any interruptions. Keith let Lance take care of the other slides as he had no idea how to make them look that way, but still kept an eye on him to make sure he stayed away from those God-awful slide transition effects. He got distracted after a while and let his eyes wander on the dorm walls.

He spotted a drawing he had not seen last time. It looked beautiful: it depicted a little boy who Keith supposed was Lance smiling in space, surrounded by stars only.

“Did you draw this?” Keith asked.

“Hm?” Lance looked up to what Keith was pointing. “Oh, no, my mom did. I can't draw as well as her, she's super talented, she gave me this one before I got back to Garrison a few summers ago,” he explained, a smile lifting his lips.

Keith could tell he loved her immensely, and once again felt something ache inside his chest.

“Do you? Draw I mean.”

“Sometimes I guess... Haven't in a while, though,” Keith answered.

Lance suddenly sat up straight. “Wait, seriously? I wouldn't have pegged you as an artist,” he said truthfully. “But I can see it. What do emo guys even paint? Spiders? Skulls? Bats?”

Keith rolled his eyes, but he still smiled a little. This boy was seriously ridiculous.

“Why are you only coming up with bad Halloween-themed decorations?”

“Okay, first of all: those are awesome, thank you very much. Second of all: I don't know, dude. I really like Halloween and it's pretty soon, okay?”

They ended up talking about their own Halloween traditions. Lance was _absolutely appalled_ by the fact that Keith had not dressed up for years and did not intend to do so this year either. He just... did not really have anyone to do this with and would feel kind of pathetic dressing up on his own. He was fine spending the night alone watching lame horror movies.

Lance started talking about how he celebrated it every year with his friends or family and how he did the Halloween make-up for his nephews. Apparently he was particularly good at doing the skull one. Keith was content with merely listening as Lance recounted the disaster that was the first Halloween party he had gone to in 8 th  grade.

“You're going to dress up this year, I'll make sure of it,” Lance declared suddenly.

“Oh yeah?” Keith asked, looking him straight in the eye in a way he hoped looked challenging.

“Yup,” Lance assured again, maintaining eye contact for a moment before looking away. He cleared his throat. “What will you dress up as?”

“I don't know... A vampire, maybe? They're pretty cool,” Keith said after thinking about it for a few seconds. “What about you?”

“They _are_ pretty cool, but not as cool as werewolves which is what I'm going to dress up as this year. I will look _so_ much cooler than you, Kogane.”

“Sure...” Keith said evasively instead of arguing the contrary. He hid his smile by taking a sip of the water bottle Lance had offered him earlier. He could tell that pissed Lance off even more than if he had argued with him, which might have been the desired effect.

 

*

 

This evening, Keith walked out of the dorm feeling a little lighter, a soft smile on his lips. Working with someone else, with _Lance_ , had seemed almost impossible all those days ago, but it was not so bad now. And he might even be able to help Nora after all.

The thought simultaneously made him feel proud and... something else. It was feeble, almost non-existent and he could not for the life of him put a name on it. Keith decided to ignore it for now.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all your kind comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i took... way too long to update so i apologize for that, it's mostly bc of all the work i've had since going back to college but yeah. at least the chapter is longer than usual sooo there's that... i guess. i hope you enjoy reading it!

Keith was almost convinced Shiro had some kind of super-power.

He was far from being an open book and yet, Shiro always seemed to know _exactly_ what was on his mind. It was sort of freaky to be honest.

Okay, so maybe it was not a super-power per say, but Shiro still had an incredible and infallible instinct when it came to him and it was something he could not comprehend.

He could admit it could be convenient at times. As Keith was not exactly good with words, he had a hard time confiding in people. But he would not even have to tell Shiro everything for him to understand. Other times, though, it meant Keith could not hide anything from him and it truly sucked. Like that time he tried to skip school or when he had a bad grade. Or that time he saved enough money to gift something to Shiro for his birthday or when he really missed his dad.

So, of course he would notice something was different.

Not that much had changed, really. But you could trust Shiro to notice even the slightest of things.

“I'm happy for you, you know,” Shiro said out of nowhere, before bringing a piece of lettuce to his mouth.

Keith looked up from his plate, confused as he had not said a word in the last few minutes. He tried to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes. Without success. “Uh.. okay? Why?”

“You've made new friends, that's great, Keith!”

“I did not, though,” Keith pointed out, trying not to shy away from eye contact; it was absolutely necessary for his poker face to make a full impact on his interlocutor.

He knew exactly what Shiro was referring to, but he wasn't lying and that was exactly what he wanted his eyes to be saying. So, as tempting as looking at the other side of the room to see what the other officers were laughing about, he did _not_ look away (which took literal physical effort).

He had not made any new friends. Yes, he had seen Lance a few times: to _work on a school project_. A school project they had not even chosen to work on together in the first place.

Keith's phone screen lit up from where it was lying on the gray staff cafeteria table. He quickly grabbed it and buried it in his jeans pocket ignoring the text message and Shiro's pointed look. So what if he and Lance texted from time to time? That did not mean they suddenly were the best of friends or anything.

Shiro pointed to where the phone had originally been on the table. “Is this the 'asshole from your grade'?”

How Shiro had put two and two together so quickly was a mystery to Keith, and he wanted to wipe the smug smile from his stupid face. That was probably what happened when people paid basic attention to you, but that still felt strange.

Keith did not look up from his plate this time, feigning disinterest.

Lance was actually not that much of an asshole when you got to know him. A part of Keith was itching to correct Shiro and tell him so. But that would have meant giving him more information on someone whose name he did not even know. And as far as Keith was concerned, the less he knew, the better.

“Maybe,” he shrugged vaguely, picking up his glass of water to stop himself from saying more.

“Why are you guys texting if he's an asshole?” Asked Shiro.

Keith could not see his face as his own was shoved in his glass of water, but although he could hear a smirk in his voice, he could also tell he was genuinely curious. While he was a little tempted to bring up Adam to escape the conversation once again, depriving one of the only person who actually cared about him of knowing what was going on in his life felt ridiculous. And it wasn't only because he was not sure he could get away with using the same trick twice in such a short amount of time. It was just that after everything Shiro had done for him, the least he could do was letting him know this, as frivolous at it seemed even if it was not something he would naturally do.

Keith put his drink back down and took a deep breath. “We're just working together on a school project. He's alright.” Yeah, it was honestly the best he could do. But hey, he was trying.

Shiro seemed to understand that as he was wearing an encouraging smile. Not only did he know Keith's beef with words, but he also knew how reluctant he usually was to do anything teamwork related. The mere look on his face made it seem like some kind of great accomplishment. And maybe it was.

“How is this going?”

“Um, not too bad, actually,” Keith admitted, shrugging as if it were nothing, but allowing himself to feel a little tingle of pride at the utterance of these words. “We're almost done, which is good because Mrs. Sacher wants the presentations to start next week.”

They were too many to be able to all give the presentation on the same day as Mrs. Sacher's class only lasted an hour. Many of his classmates hoped they would not be one of the first ones to do it since they were far from being done, but Keith and Lance were actually almost ready.

They did not talk about it much longer. Keith told him what the presentation was about when Shiro asked, and he made fun of him even though he had told him he believed in aliens before. This told Keith disagreeing to do the presentation on Shiro was one of the best decisions he had ever made. Shiro, who was probably waiting to see if Keith would bring it up on his own surprisingly did not ask about Lance. His chest tightened in what almost felt like disappointment.

Before living when lunch break was nearing its end, Shiro stopped at the door. “Oh, I almost forgot!” He said. “Adam is coming back tonight, so you're free to take the motorcycle tomorrow.”

So Shiro did have things to say about Adam! Keith had been stupid to think the contrary, but he was glad he had not tried to avoid talking about himself for once. He was also really excited about not having to wait up for Shiro every evening anymore.

“And now we can finally plan something together,” Keith reminded him.

“Hey don't think I forgot, kid! I did not,” Shiro assured him. “I've actually talked about it with him on the phone, and he seemed really excited. We'll try to do this in the next few days, yeah?”

Keith nodded, and Shiro left, leaving the door open behind him.

 

*

 

Keith tucked his hands in his jacket in a desperate attempt to warm them up.

It was crazy how cold it could get out there when the sun went down to give way to a star-bright sky. He regretted having ditched his Garrison uniform for more casual (yet tragically colder) clothes after P.E. If he thought about it, he also slightly regretted having chosen to buy fingerless gloves instead of regular functional ones. He remembered having told himself he should pick them because if something were to happen, fingerless gloves would allow him to get _such_ a better grip. Deep down, he knew it was only because they looked _way_ cooler, but he'd rather drop out of Garrison than admit that.

Over the soft sound of the leaves rustling in the lone trees, Keith's ears perceived the slight noise of approaching footsteps and turned around.

“I hope I'm mistaken, but were you, by any chance, heading to _my_ spot?” He said, with mischief in his voice. He had been standing in the exact same place they had been the first time he had talked to Lance.

For once, it seemed that he had been the one to take Lance by surprise. Granted, the boy had not in any way been close to jump, he had been heading his way after all. But he had still taken him off guard by speaking first, and Keith was going to savor his small victory. He wiped a drop of water away from the bridge of his nose. Although he had paid an extra amount of attention to drying his hair with his towel, it was still damp from the shower, and it clearly was not helping with the cold at all.

“Puh-lease,” Lance said, in mock offense after taking off the single earphone he had been wearing. “I would never do that. As any other decent person would, _I_ know not to steal other people's spots!”

Lance had changed in his normal clothes as well. His dark coat not only looked way more weather appropriate than Keith's jacket, but also an awful lot more comfortable. Keith tried to keep his shivering down by focusing on Lance to distract himself from the biting cold. He had put his hood on, as his hair was still a little damp as well; his bangs were sticking to his forehead in an almost endearing way.

“I was looking for you actually,” Lance explained, sliding the straps of his backpack off his shoulders before putting it down on the old bench.

It was Keith's time to be surprised, as though Lance's declaration had not been made quite obvious by the fact that he had literally been heading his way just a few seconds ago. It just was not every day people came looking for him.

“I tried to find you at the end of P.E, but you left too quickly,” Lance added. “Too bad you didn't show this much speed on the track. Missed you on the finish line, Kogane. ”

Keith scoffed. “That's because I was going easy on you,” he replied.

It was not exactly true. It had just been a long day that had came up after a mostly sleepless night. He just hadn't felt like running the mile when going back to bed was the only thing on his mind, and he could not have cared less about his grades in P.E at this point. It was not like he had anyone to disappoint but himself anyway.

“Suuuure you were,” Lance said with a blinding grin.

He had been going through his backpack after having put it down, and it seemed he had found what he was looking for as he had just put his search to a stop. He retrieved a little paper bag and held it out for Keith without any explanation.

Keith frowned, but took the packet from his hands, not really knowing what to do with it. It was rather light but you could still tell there were several items in it when you shook it slightly, and Keith had no idea what they could be nor why Lance would suddenly hand them to him.

“It's my apology for having been kind of an asshole to you,” Lance clarified at the sight of Keith's typical confused face.

Keith did not know what to say. Which was not such a bad thing considering he wasn't sure he would have been able to form a correct answer had he opened his mouth; his tongue felt like a flabby useless morsel of meat inside of it. It was the first time he had ever received a gift from anyone who was not Shiro or his dad. From anyone who was not some sort of paternal figure, really. Lacking words, he decided to open the brown bag. Inside, he found a pack of the same cigarettes he had been smoking last time, a fancy mechanical pen, and an eraser.

“I— thank you, Lance, but I can't accept this. It's like way too much,” mumbled Keith.

He felt so incredibly embarrassed, and suddenly longed for their usual banter. Not that he did not appreciate Lance's thoughtfulness, because he did. The problem was that he did not deserve it. Yes, Lance had been kind of asshole to him at first, but he had made effort and he did not owe Keith anything. Especially since Keith had had his moments too, not to mention he still felt incredibly bad about not even having been able to remember his name just a few weeks ago.

“Yeah well,” Lance answered, rubbing his nape and chuckling awkwardly. “I've been kind of a huge asshole. Tell you what, we'll make a compromise. If that's not a good enough reason for you: you take them, and I get a drawing. How does that sound?”

Keith considered it for a second. He usually did not show his drawings to anyone (not that many people knew he drew), but he could do that. Knowing that he'd eventually have something to gift Lance as well did make him feel less weird about the whole situation. He nodded in agreement and took the pack of cigarettes out of the small bag, lifting it up for Lance to see.

“And what are the cigarettes for?” He asked.

Lance furtively took the pack back from his hands. “They're here as repayment from last time,” he said as if it were self-evident.

He opened the pack in one swift gesture and pulled out two of its cigarettes before putting it back in Keith's hands in a flash. Keith's eyes could not help but follow his every move. For some reason, the way Lance performed every-day tasks seemed almost orchestrated; the most boring motions became somehow fascinating, like the way his long fingers gracefully wrapped around the cigarettes. He offered one of them to him. Keith blinked at him for a second before quickly looking away. He put the pack back in the bag, muttering a quick thank you, and lit his newly acquired cigarette, protecting the flickering flame of his lighter from the bitter cold with his shivering hands.

“Oh, so I give you one cigarette, and I get a whole pack in return?” He asked, avoiding eye contact, hoping Lance had not noticed his slow reactiveness once he had came to his senses. He pressed the filter against his lips but did not take a drag just yet.

“What can I say, I'm a very generous man,” Lance declared.

Keith's eyes usually adjusted quite well to the darkness, better than most people even. But it seemed it wasn't the case at this moment as he thought he might have seen Lance winking at him, and as in character as it would have been for him, he was pretty sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. If he felt his cheeks flush slightly, he was definitely blaming it on the cold making blood flicker up his skin.

Lance brought his own cigarette to his lips and lighted it in no time. The flame of his lighter had not wavered one bit, as though the wind had suddenly stopped its incessant blowing just for him. Keith blew his smoke in its place, feeling his stomach tighten at how similar this felt to their initial conversation and yet so different. Who would have thought Lance McClain would have bought cigarettes and art supplies for him just a few weeks ago. If you'd had told that to Lance himself, he probably would have impudently laughed in your face. And yet here they were, chatting with no serious animosity, with Keith no longer feeling the cold air against his skin with how warm he felt inside. Or he might just have finally gotten used to the chill after standing outside for so long.

“Be careful,” he warned Lance with a shy smile. “If you keep hanging out with me, you'll start smoking for real.”

“Hanging out with you? You wish, Kogane,” Lance said, but there was no heat behind his words. “This is a strictly professional meeting.” He gestured between the two of them to illustrate his words.

“Aaaah, I see. And those are professional gifts, I suppose.” Following Lance's lead, he illustrated his remark by lifting the packet up.

“They are indeed! I'm glad we're on the same page!”

While gesturing widely, Lance had lifted his still lit cigarette higher to his face for a second, his eyes capturing the reddish light through the smoke, making them glow in an almost supernatural way. Keith shivered. It _was_ a cold night. He looked down at the dry taupe dirt he was toeing with the tip of his now dusty boot. He could not help thinking about Nora's crush on Lance for some reason. It might have been a good time to ask him about her, now that there weren't so much hostility between them, but the words just would not come out.

Lance spoke up before he could anyway: “Are we still finishing up the project tomorrow?” He asked, more as a way to draw this conversation to an end than out of true wonder while he slid his backpack back on his shoulders; getting ready to go. It was getting late, and they had already agreed to see each other the next day, Lance was solely being his polite self.

Seeing each other to work on their presentation was not completely necessary anymore. They just had to put a few quick final touches that could have been done on their own in probably just a few minutes. Keith still nodded and hummed in confirmation. Working with Lance was fun; it felt nice to finally be a part of something collective, even if this something was nothing more than a simple stupid school project. He awkwardly waved Lance goodbye when he indeed got going; not really minding having been unable to quickly get back to his shack as soon as the school day had ended for once.

 

 

*

 

Keith was walking down the dorm's corridors, his cellphone in his hands, texting. He was becoming one of those distracted texters who always created pedestrian traffic hazards that Keith hated so much. They walked excruciatingly slowly and he often ended up experiencing road rage in the middle of the school hallways, clenching his fists so hard his knuckles whitened because there were not enough space for him to overtake the enemies. Let's not even mention the few times inattentive students bumped into him... Remembering this made Keith look up just in time to avoid crashing into a group of boys leaving their dorm rooms. He answered their dirty looks with an halfheartedly apologetic smile (yeah, he was at fault, but it wasn't as if they couldn't have just stepped aside and avoided him themselves), sliding his phone back inside his jeans pocket to avoid further potential accidents. All this for it to start vibrating just a few seconds later, alerting him of an incoming call.

"Hey, it's Shiro," Shiro's voice came out of the speaker as soon as Keith pressed 'answer' on his phone screen.

"I know, your name comes up on the screen when you call me."

“Did you see my message?”

“I did. I told you you can tell that by checking if 'read' is written under your sent message,' answered Keith distractedly, explaining this for what felt like the hundredth time. He sometimes wondered how Shiro had become an elite pilot with such poor technological knowledge, even though he kept reminding him he did not exactly need this to fly a spaceship, which Keith guessed was fair enough.

“Why didn't you answer then?” Shiro insisted in what he probably thought was a casual voice but Keith knew the truth. He did not like being ignored and always expected people to answer promptly, but thankfully did not get mad if they did not otherwise he could have said goodbye to texting Keith. He and Adam were the perfect match as Keith had never met someone who answered texts so quickly it was a bit eerie.

“You say that as if I'm always on my phone or something,” Keith said with a dry chuckle as it generally wasn't the case. “Anyway, I'm busy. I'm on my way to meet with Lance; we're gonna put the finishing touches to our presentation.”

“Oh, _Lance_? I see you guys are on a first name's basis now, huh?”

Keith could almost hear Shiro's smirk through the speakers and was extremely tempted to hang up, so much so that he let his fingers hover over the button in hesitation, but settled for an exasperate look he was aware could unfortunately not be properly conveyed through the phone. He was sure Shiro could sense what face he was making, though; his silence spoke louder that words.

“Yeah, 'cause not literally everyone calls their classmates by their first names,” Keith deadpanned.

“I mean, yeah, but you do mention him quite a lot lately,” Shiro remarked.

He had almost singsung the words. _Disgusting_. What was up with all this teasing as if Keith had a third grader crush on Lance when he was not even sure they were friends anyway? They had never hung out together outside of school excluding the times they had to work together, and it wasn't as if they had had any choice on the matter. They did text and talk well when they saw each other, but he doubted that was enough to qualify their relationship as a friendship. When did one know when to call someone a friend? What were the criteria, if such things existed? Shiro was really making a big deal out of nothing, and it was starting to mess with Keith's head.

“Yeah 'cause you keep asking all these questions.”

He was glad this hadn't come out too irritated, because in a way he was glad someone was asking those questions; he did not want to sound like an ungrateful brat, but sometimes it could get a little too much for him. It was quite frustrating, trying to answer a question he, himself did not have all the answers to.

“And I won't stop until you feel comfortable enough to tell me things yourself.”

Keith rolled his eyes once again, but this time more out of amusement than anything else. Shiro could sound like such a dad sometimes. He stopped in his tracks suddenly, realizing he was next to Lance's dorm door and had almost missed it.

“I'm gonna have to go—“

“Just, before I forget: Adam's back, so I put the keys of the motorcycle in your locker, and it's parked behind the main building. Be careful, it's raining.”

Keith looked around, surprised by Shiro's observation as it had not even been cloudy when he had last set foot outside, but there were no windows to verify his statement. Now that he thought about it, he remembered having felt the warm wind that had foreshadowed it. Keith always seemed to notice things once it was too late.

“Oh okay, thanks. I'll be careful, talk to you later,” he said, the unfamiliar words feeling weird on his tongue due to a lack of usage, but still glad he had uttered them anyway.

Keith put his phone away and stood awkwardly in front of the door even though Lance had told him several times he could just come in once he arrived. He ended up knocking twice anyway, feeling weird about getting in unannounced. No answer. He knocked another time, harder this time. Still no answer. He turned the door knob and pushed the door open to find Lance sitting crossed legs on his bed, Pidge's laptop balanced on his bed, wearing big green headphones. He seemed very focused on whatever was on his computer's screen which made Keith wonder what he was doing.

Lance noticed him and took the headphones off. “Oh hey, Kogane!” He greeted him.

“Hey, what were you doing?”

“Listening to ASMR,” answered Lance in a strange tone Keith did not know how to interpret it, so he just nodded at him.

“Do you know even know what ASMR is, desert boy?”

“I do, I actually listen to it sometimes, it's quite calming,” affirmed Keith, happy to know what Lance was talking about for once, but the boy just ended up laughing so hard he put the laptop away so that he did not catapult it out of the bed.

“Oh my god, you're serious! Keith! _No_! I did not even know some people actually unironically enjoyed ASMR! You animal!”

Lance kept laughing, and Keith was still his constantly confused self, not understanding how he ended up in this situation so quickly, wishing he knew a thing or two about social cues. A smile still sneaked up on his face. He was pretty sure it was the first time he had heard Lance call him by his first name, and he did not hate it.

“But you said you were listening to it, though!”

“I was kidding! And I still can't believe you weren't. I guess it means we can't be friends anymore... It was fun while it lasted...” Lance said being his dramatic self, and Keith thought his expression was the perfect personification of ' **:/** '. He was the worst.

But wait a second... so they _were_ friends. Keith felt a warm feeling spreading in his chest. He tried to follow Lance's lead and act dramatic (because he was pretty damn sure he was kidding this time even he was not that much of a drama queen) but he had a hard time stopping himself from smiling, and even pressing his lips against each other was not enough to conceal the large grin that was forming there and he ended up breaking into an embarrassing fit of giggles.

This surprised Lance out of his so terribly saddened character as his eye grew bigger and he smiled back. “Okay, that was adorable, you are all forgiven since I feel bad the emo club is going to revoke your membership once they find out you're a _giggler_.”

“'m not,” Keith mumbled, lying shamelessly as another traitor of a giggle escaped his prison of teeth.

He sat next to his schoolmate as Lance had taken the laptop back on his lap.

“Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, Kogane.”

“'s not a secret. What were you doing on your laptop anyway?”

Keith had to stop always shifting the subject every time he was a little uncomfortable talking about something. Oh well. He will start doing so another day.

“Oh, I was just taking Buzzfeed quizzes while waiting for you, and couldn't stop once I started. The usual. The last one was entitled,” he said, interrupting himself to look back at the screen in order to read the title of the quiz he had just taken. “'Choose your plans for tonight and we'll tell you which sign is your soulmate'.”

He chuckled, not the slightest bit embarrassed by the absurdity and cheesiness of what he had clicked on. It was admirable how unafraid this boy was of being himself, Keith wished he could say the same about himself, but he did not even really know who he was.

“After reading this title I couldn't just _not_ take this quiz. I _had_ to know what my soulmate's sign is, you know, I couldn't bear living in this kind of ignorance. And now I know. I got...” He checked the screen again. “Scorpio.”

Keith coughed awkwardly. How weird would it be to mention he was a Scorpio right a this moment. Probably super weird so he'd better refrain from saying anything in case Lance misunderstood it for flirting. He probably would not but you know, just in case. Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure Nora was a Scorpio too so, good for her. Not that these quizzes meant anything anyway but yeah. Keith had never really believed in astrology anyway.

He sat up straighter; he should really ask about Nora now that this was on his mind and that he finally had the perfect opportunity to bring her up, after all that was why all this had started.

“What do you think of Nora? She's a Scorpio. I think.”

Lance blinked at the screen and seemed to tense a bit; he was almost frowning and would not look away from the laptop. “Uh... she's pretty cool. Why, you like her or something?”

Oh. Lance thought _he_ liked her... This explained why he had suddenly sounded so defensive; he obviously liked her back. Nora was not going to believe him when he told her. Even this ridiculous test thought they should be together. He had finally became Lance's friend and held his promise to her, but strangely, knowing that did not make him feel better; there was something like a weight on his chest and somehow breathing did not come as easily.

“Oh not at all. I mean she's nice and all but I was just curious since you guys are friends.”

“Yeah, sure,” Lance chuckled dryly, wearing a bitter smile.

Justifying himself would have been a waste of time since Lance would realize he had not been lying when he'd said he wasn't at all interested in Nora once they would get together, which will probably happen pretty soon. Keith felt a smile similar to Lance's stretch his lips. He took a deep breath; they should be focusing on the presentation right now, not whatever this was.

As expected, there wasn't much to do. They just quickly proofread the powerpoint and practiced doing the presentation. It was a little awkward at first as they were working in a pretty tensed atmosphere, but as soon as they started joking again it was easily forgotten.

“Would you ever fuck an alien?” Lance asked out of nowhere.

Keith was glad he had not been anywhere near to drinking at this moment because this might have been what would have killed him. Scratch that, he would have accepted his faith as a lone lost ghost stuck on the face of earth forever if it meant getting to see Lance try to explain how he had killed him. He would have so much fun haunting him if he would not be able to make fun of him anymore. Keith lifted his head back toward him, trying to determine if Lance was kidding or not. He seemed disturbingly (but not so surprisingly) dead serious.

“What the fuck, man,” Keith said, cracking up.

“Hey, who knows what can happen! What if it's a life or death situation? Don't you wanna save earth, Keith?”

“I don't know, dude! What kind of situation would require you to fuck an alien to save earth... I don't think anyone gives this as much thoughts as you think they do.”

As often as he reflected on the different ways an encounter with extraterrestrial life would unfold (usually on Mondays, during their first or last class of the day), he had never given any thoughts to having an intercourse with one of the aliens, and did not exactly regret it; even if it meant he did not have a prepared answer to this... unusual question. He could always ask the question back even if it meant exposing his poor innocent ears to things he did not need to know about his new friend. So he did.

“Hell yes, I would.” he answered without an once of hesitation nor shame.

“You're aware it's very unlikely they'd look like aliens do in movies, right? They probably wouldn't just be busty chicks with blue skin and shit; like they'd probably have no face or fur or something.”

Lance merely shrugged at that, unbothered. “So what if they do?”

Keith's giggles fit made a strong come back and he put a hand in front of his mouth in a ineffective way to muffle the sound leaving his mouth. “You— first you want to dress up as a werewolf, now you want to bang an alien lady. Dude, you're a furry.”

He expected Lance to argue and refute what he had just said, but he just turned his head to him with eyes widened by amusement and joined in on the giggle fit. Keith looked at him double up with laughter. Just like everything he did, when Lance laughed, it was loud and his whole body shook with it. Keith might have found it annoying a few weeks prior, but he did not feel one speck of irritation when he looked for it, the only thing he found was the lightness in his chest and the stupid smile forming on his lips.

“I thought we could like bake cookies or something in the communal kitchen, if you're up to it. Unless...” Lance took a look at the vintage radio alarm clock on his bedside table. It had cute stars and spaceships stickers stuck on it. “Yeah, it's pretty late. Shiro's probably going to pick you up soon,” he said once he had calmed down, not denying Keith's earlier accusations; Keith was not going to dwell on whatever this meant about his friend.

“Ah yeah, I forgot to tell you Shiro won't be able to give me a ride back. I can find another way to get back if it bother you though, I don't want to impose or anything.”

He had no idea why he had said that when he knew perfectly well that the motorcycle was waiting for him a few hundreds of feet away only. His lie left him rooted to the spot, dreading Lance's answer; the wait which probably barely lasted a few seconds in reality seemed to go on forever. He noticed for the first time this evening the sound of the pouring rain falling against Lance's dorm window.

Lance solely smiled before nodding once. “Sure, no problem, man, if it means I won't be eating cookies alone you can stay as long as you wish.”

“You won't.”

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
